‘New neighbour then, sir? She seems very, um, enthusiastic.’ Tripp raised his eyebrows and seemed to be struggling to control a grin.

‘Was there something important, detective constable? Only I was hoping to get some sleep for the first time in several days.’

‘Of course, yes. Couldn’t send the files over the internet. No time to securely encode them. Here you go.’ Tripp opened a laptop, and clicked on a folder in which two items sat. As the first played, Callanach could hear the now familiar song that the band had been playing when Sim Thorburn had hit the floor. The footage was taken from a few rows in front of the victim, on a mobile phone whose owner was obviously taking a selfie of herself singing along. For a split second, in the background, a shadow passed across Sim’s face. As the shadow cleared the screen, Sim could be seen slightly out of focus, looking down towards his stomach, his face registering confusion. Then he lurched to one side, out of shot.
‘Is that all?’ Callanach asked. ‘It doesn’t tell us any more about the attacker.’

‘One more piece of footage,’ Tripp said. ‘Top right-hand corner of the screen.’

Tripp pressed play. More mobile footage, this time obviously designed to show the scale of the audience, mobile held high in the air, turning around in a three-sixty loop. After a few seconds, Tripp pressed pause and pointed.

‘There,’ he said. ‘Only in shot for a second, but it’s clearer than in the previous footage.’

Callanach looked more closely. Sim Thorburn was hidden from view, but he could see Merel and Niek De Vries. To the left of them, walking in profile, was an adult with dark brown hair flopping over their face. The attacker was wearing large, dark sunglasses. Tripp let the video play to show the person’s sudden change of direction away from the camera and into the crowd.

‘Male or female?’ Callanach asked.

‘Can’t be sure,’ Tripp replied, closing the lid of the laptop. ‘But not that tall, slim and therefore able to move about relatively unnoticed. Caucasian. Hair could be natural or dyed.

Might even be a wig. Clothes didn’t stand out to anyone, so no help there.’

‘Perfect camouflage,’ Callanach said, leaning back on the couch and closing his eyes.

‘Could it be someone from one of the homeless shelters, do you think?’ Tripp asked. ‘Sim would have come into contact with plenty of people suffering mental health problems. No one keeping tabs on them, no one to recognise them.’

Callanach shook his head.

‘I wish I believed that, Max,’ he said. ‘Because sooner or later the person you’re describing would get arrested for something else, have a breakdown and confess, get drunk and show someone the knife. This took planning. It needed care and consideration. More than that, it needed nerves of fucking steel. Can you imagine the psyche of a person who can walk through a crowd of thousands, take out a weapon, cut hard and deep and precisely, then not rush away? To walk on slowly through the crowd, certain you’ve done such a good job that you have the time to get out of there, whilst putting the knife out of sight, making sure you don’t emerge from the crowd covered in blood. This person knew how to cut. They may be a psychopath but they’re not mentally ill, not in the way we think of it. This is someone who feels nothing at all. No panic, no fear, no sense of danger. Nothing at all.’

In the middle of a rock festival, a charity worker is sliced across the stomach. He dies minutes later. In a crowd of thousands, no one saw his attacker. The following week, the body of a primary school teacher is found in a dumpster in an Edinburgh alley, strangled with her own woollen scarf. D.I. Ava Turner and D.I. Luc Callanach have no leads and no motive – until around the city, graffitied on buildings, words appear describing each victim. It’s only when they realise the words are being written before rather than after the murders, that they understand the killer is announcing his next victim…and the more innocent the better.

In the second book by in DI Callanach is back with a lot more gore and drama than the debut book.

Set against the gritty background of Edinburgh, DI Callanach and his colleague DI Turner are trying to find two killers, who are committing heinous and gruesome crimes, both battling for attention and constantly one step ahead of the police.

Seen from the perspective of Callanach, the same moody and charismatic French man who is struggling to settle in but has a strong team of support around him. Unfortunately the one person that he can really rely on is DI Turner, but she’s busy with her own case as well as a new relationship. As well as Callanach’s perspective, there are also narratives from the killers as well, which give the story a clever twist. As the story progressed and more characters and potential suspects are introduced, I found myself on my edge trying to guess the killer.

The story isn’t just about an old fashioned killing, there is also the inclusion of hacking scandals as well as chat forums, where the killer and his audience were able to chat freely. Helen also touches on the subject of the dark web, an area of the internet that is deeply hidden, but once it is discovered, it’s a dark and dangerous place to get out off.

The second book in the series is a dark and chilling story that was impossible to put down. Clever and fast paced, the story progressed with many twists and turns that really holds the readers attention. With the inclusion of a handsome detective, clever and twisted serial killers, as well as some of the most gruesome murders, ‘Perfect Prey’ is a cracker of a page turner crime book that is most definitely not for the faint hearted.

On a remote Highland mountain, the body of Elaine Buxton is burning. All that will be left to identify the respected lawyer are her teeth and a fragment of clothing. In the concealed back room of a house in Edinburgh, the real Elaine Buxton screams into the darkness.
Detective Inspector Luc Callanach has barely set foot in his new office when Elaine’s missing persons case is escalated to a murder investigation. Having left behind a promising career at Interpol, he’s eager to prove himself to his new team. But Edinburgh, he discovers, is a long way from Lyon, and Elaine’s killer has covered his tracks with meticulous care. It’s not long before another successful woman is abducted from her doorstep, and Callanach finds himself in a race against the clock. Or so he believes … The real fate of the women will prove more twisted than he could have ever imagined.

‘Perfect Remains’ is the perfect introduction to Detective Inspector Luc Callanach, a handsome and brusque French detective who has been sent from Interpol to the wilds of Scotland to help in a missing persons case. As he battles to find the missing women, he is haunted by his past as well as hassled by his new team who don’t make him feel welcome, aside from Detective Inspector Ava Turner who is battling her own case of newborn babies being left to die in the local park.

Cleverly the story is written from the perspective of the detective investigating the case as well as the killer behind the crimes and this makes for interesting and incredibly gripping reading as both of them try to beat the clock of achieving their goals before being captured.

The killer is an interesting character, he’s clever with an incredibly cruel side and revels in torturing women and it’s at these gruesome moments that he feels at his most superior as he spends his days, inferior to his peers and being alone.

The story flows at a fast and dark pace, with one main story and two smaller sub stories that weave throughout the book before all tying up together neatly in the end.

Gruesome from the very start, this makes book for quite unsettling reading and is most certainly not for the faint hearted, with scenes of torture, I did find myself having to put the book aside at times, when the scenes became too much.

For fans of psychological and investigative thrillers, ‘Perfect Remains’ is a must read, riddled with drama and gore, this nail biting story will have the reader shocked at its many twists and turns.